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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
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Posted February 21, 2014
The DRM-Free Revolution Continues with Big Pre-Orders and Launch Day Releases!

Good news! GOG.com is going to bring you more fantastic launch day releases, preorders, and other exciting new content from some of our favorite developers. We've lined up 3 big titles that we will be bringing to GOG.com in the next couple of months for sale or preorder that we think will be hits with all of our gamers; and we have more equally exciting games coming up soon.

If you've been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing. The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We're doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don't accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we'll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles. We wish that we could offer these games at flat prices everywhere in the world, but the decision on pricing is always in our partners' hands, and regional pricing is becoming the standard around the globe. We're doing this because we believe that there's no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that's standard for all of the gaming world!

That brings with it more good news, though! As mentioned, we have three games we're launching soon with regional pricing--two RPGs and a strategy game--and while we can't tell you what they are yet because breaking an NDA has more severe penalties than just getting a noogie, we're confident that you'll be as excited about these games as we are. For a limited time, we will be offering anyone who pre-orders or buys one of them a free game from a selection as a gift from GOG.com, just like we did for The Witcher 2.

If you have any questions, hit us up in the comments below and we'll be happy to answer (to the best of our ability).

EDIT: Since we've answered a lot of the common questions already here (and lest you think that we've ignored you), it may be handy for you to check out the forum thread about this and search for staff answers by clicking this link here. (hat tip to user Eli who reminded us that the feature even exists. :)
Posted February 22, 2014
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Urnoev: This is unethical and I will not buy one of this thee games with regional pricing, no matter how bad I want them. This is a path I cannot follow you and I have to say, I am somewhat disappointed.
I figure that's exactly what people should do, if they're aren't in support of this change in policy. Let's just wait and see what the prices for these new games will be and whether or not people will be willing to buy them. I don't think all the noise on the forum will make much of a difference. GOG and the publishers will base their decisions on whether or not their customer base goes along with this and buys those new games, and then they'll react accordingly. If this really is as terrible as some make it out to be, and no one will be willing to buy those games, then I doubt this new pricing policy is going to last.

It's really not so different from how things worked in the past, since there have always been a few odd overpriced titles available here, and if no one buys them, sooner or later the price will have to drop.
Posted February 22, 2014
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DukeNukemForever: I'm not him, but from his answers in this thread he can't answer you that question yet, because they have no plans yet except getting new deals thanks to abandon regional pricing. His answer will likely be like this: "Currently" there are no plans to block or foribd vpn.

I believe it's just better not to torture him anymore as long he has no exact orders and new rules from the publishers.
Isn't that his job position? Kidding.

I'm still curious as to what he will answer for now. No doubt the rules will change once regional prices becomes the norm (if they do) instead of only a few new games and once again if it becomes profitable for people to utilize means to avoid the price differences.
Posted February 22, 2014
GOG already only supports DRMed operating systems, so this totally makes sense. GOG, just throw your values away as a whole, you know you want to. Forget all the good will you have obtained. It definitely didn't put you where you are today. Those publishers you mentioned just now did!
Posted February 22, 2014
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RedBackDragon: i wish region priceing worked like that but sadly no , more likely than not it will mean a return to the %300 mark up's for people in county's like Australia , New Zealand Greece and so on
I don't know, in the end GOG and the publishers will only hurt themselves with such strategies. If game prices reach a point where they are simply not affordable for some people, especially with the economy being fucked up in so many countries, people will simply turn elsewhere. ( Oh, hi pirate bay. ) Getting a lower price from a customer is better than not getting anything at all, no? You'd think they should know this best, or they wouldn't do all these promos with ridiculously low prices.
Posted February 22, 2014
Disappointing news.

Even though I dislike regional pricing, it isn't normally a similar deal-breaker for me like DRM is (e.g., DotEmu sells its games in euros, so do they have regional pricing already? If they do, that hasn't stopped me from buying DRM-free games from them; same for e.g. GamersGate, or even Steam for those games I know being DRM-free for sure there, like the X series).

But as others have suggested, this can be a precedent to DRM as well, as in "If we didn't add DRM to some games, we couldn't bring them to GOG". The same argument works there, unfortunately.

But as I've said before: up to GOG, it is their business after all. They alone decide what they need to do. If they need to e.g. bring DRM to some of their games, fine. But at that point I personally don't really have a reason to normally choose a GOG version anymore instead of e.g. a Steam version. At this point though, GOG still has an edge, thanks to DRM-free games.

Anyway, I am still eagerly waiting what those new promised DRM-free releases will be, regional pricing or not.

EDIT: As some suggested, with regional restrictions I am more concerned about the stupid German editions of games that might be now pushed to all EU customers, rather than pricing. Then again, with Fallout games we were all apparently pushed with the censored US-versions, even without regional restrictions?
Post edited February 22, 2014 by timppu
Posted February 22, 2014
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F4LL0UT: Well, maybe in that case the GOGers would have aimed their hate rather at the developers that we *actually* owe this new policy to. :P
Pretty sure in most cases the publishers are to blame. Game developers just make games, and are mostly clueless when it comes to the business side of things. ;P

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xxxIndyxxx: No, as far as I am concerned: no game is worth it. Its for this reason I ONLY buy games on steam now when they have a huge deal. Since steam is getting a lot of oldies lately, that were only sold here before, using gog is getting less and less appealing. If this is going to happen for all games here, then i will not buy any games new here. It,s better for my wallet but it,s still disappointing. When gog use to be good old games, they were the only store were i felt to customer was the most important part in the business plan. Now they are getting just another store and I will take my wallet to the cheapest one aka steam christmas and summer deals.
But Steam has regional pricing too -- been that way for a long time, no? Personally I don't consider Steam an option at all. Had a brief flirt with it, but that didn't work out and I don't intend to ever go back to it. :P
Post edited February 22, 2014 by CharlesGrey
Posted February 22, 2014
Perhaps I'm missing something. However, isn't Recommended Retail Price just that? A recommendation?

If these developers are truly in control of the pricing and able to enforce it on GOG (or anyone) wouldn't that amount to price fixing, not to mention abuse of market position? Both of which are illegal.
"Pricing is always in our partners' hands, " - Surely GOG itself would be in control of that, as they're the last link to the customer? As long as the partner's fee has been paid, then they're free to sell it at any price they want?
Posted February 22, 2014
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CharlesGrey: But Steam has regional pricing too -- been that way for a long time, no? Personally I don't consider Steam an option at all. Had a brief flirt with it, but that didn't work out and I don't intend to ever go back to it. :P
Steam offers you at least an option to circumvent the regional restrictions. As a German, I can activate Austrian keys to get an uncensored version of a game and Steam makes it very clear if a game is censored or not.
Posted February 22, 2014
Hmm.

I just hope GOG will draw the line somewhere and not start accepting titles that come with DRM using the excuse "that's become the standard around the globe".
Posted February 22, 2014
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Curtisin: Perhaps I'm missing something. However, isn't Recommended Retail Price just that? A recommendation?

If these developers are truly in control of the pricing and able to enforce it on GOG (or anyone) wouldn't that amount to price fixing, not to mention abuse of market position? Both of which are illegal.
"Pricing is always in our partners' hands, " - Surely GOG itself would be in control of that, as they're the last link to the customer? As long as the partner's fee has been paid, then they're free to sell it at any price they want?
Physical and digital retail are different. Digital retailers don't buy stock and resell it at their own leisure, instead they mediate sales for publishers for a percentage of the sale. In that relationship, the publisher is the one in control of the prices as well as the sales.
Posted February 22, 2014
This news is disappointing, gog says that they are on the side of the consumer but news like this makes me think otherwise.

I really hope gog rethinks this decision or they could lose a lot of business from europe and Aus/NZ
Post edited February 22, 2014 by mrking58
Posted February 22, 2014
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timppu: But as I've said before: up to GOG, it is their business after all. They alone decide what they need to do. If they need to e.g. bring DRM to some of their games, fine. But at that point I personally don't really have a reason to normally choose a GOG version anymore instead of e.g. a Steam version. At this point though, GOG still has an edge, thanks to DRM-free games.

Anyway, I am still eagerly waiting what those new promised DRM-free releases will be, regional pricing or not.
Pretty much, yes. Being DRM-free is the one major difference they have to services like Steam, if they lose that, they would also lose a significant percentage of their userbase. Seems just about the worst move they could make, so it doesn't seem likely they'll take that route, at least in the foreseeable future.

And I'm curious about the new games, too. Let's hope that won't turn out to be a disappointment.
Posted February 22, 2014
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CharlesGrey: Pretty sure in most cases the publishers are to blame. Game developers just make games, and are mostly clueless when it comes to the business side of things. ;P
I thought all the games that GOG is referring to in this announcement come from independent studios - or at least from small publishers. And even if it's publishers - it's still where people actually have to put the blame. It's them who didn't agree to one international price and GOG has probably done everything they could to convince those guys to do so.
Posted February 22, 2014
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CharlesGrey: I don't know, in the end GOG and the publishers will only hurt themselves with such strategies. If game prices reach a point where they are simply not affordable for some people, especially with the economy being fucked up in so many countries, people will simply turn elsewhere. ( Oh, hi pirate bay. ) Getting a lower price from a customer is better than not getting anything at all, no? You'd think they should know this best, or they wouldn't do all these promos with ridiculously low prices.
I consider that an exaggeration. Economy's pretty fucked up, but publishers usually do not ask prices from their customers if they don't think these could be paid. gog has made a mark in the industry saing it's possible to ask one price internationally. But that already is an unfairness, as 20$ have a completely different value in different countries. 20$ in Romania, heck yeah. 20$ in Germany, not even a restaurant visit.

The major problem remains that Steam will always be able to set the price tag lower - perks of being a monopoly. It all depends on how fair and intelligent developers/publishers are right now. Judging from experience, it will probably mostly be OK, while black sheep will always be black sheep. :(
Posted February 22, 2014
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Pheace: Physical and digital retail are different. Digital retailers don't buy stock and resell it at their own leisure, instead they mediate sales for publishers for a percentage of the sale. In that relationship, the publisher is the one in control of the prices as well as the sales.
Thanks Pheace, for the clarification. I'd have thought they'd have bought X amount of Serial Keys (or the equivalent) at a fixed price, and then sold them based on their choice.
With it being as you mentioned, it makes sense. (Even if I don't agree with regional pricing).
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)